PESHAWAR, April 27: The District Bar Association has nominated a panel of 20 lawyers to provide free legal aid to 242 registered citizen community boards (CCBs) in Peshawar. Spokesman for the Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE) Kamran Khan said the committee had been constituted under a memorandum of understanding signed in July 2004, says a press release.

Dr Anwar Butt, a consultant to the DTCE, called upon lawyers at a meeting held at the bar library to promote the public interest litigation in the country.

He said that till December 2004, around 242 CCBs had been registered in Peshawar which had submitted 223 development schemes, matching a grant up to 80 per cent as envisaged in the NWFP Local Government Ordinance 2001.

He said only 108 CCBs’ schemes had been approved by district councils, out of which 10 CCBs’ schemes had been completed and 45 were under execution.

For these schemes, he said, the community had contributed 20 per cent of the total cost, whereas the city district governments had provided 80 per cent grant to fulfil the needs of community.

In this way, he said, Rs7.2 million had been utilized till December 2004. He said approximately Rs30 million were lying unutilized with the city district governments.

“According to the LGO 2001, about 25 per cent of total development budget has to be utilized through the CCBs. The 25 per cent fund reserved for the CCBs is non-lapsable,” he added.

He said the DTCE had already constituted legal assistance panels in Swabi, Charsadda, Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra for CCBs.